Hello again everyone. I'm Dr. Mike Samuels, a third-year emergency medicine resident at the Medical College of Georgia in Augusta.

Joining me again today is Dr. Dan McCollum, Assistant Program Director of the residency here.

Good morning, Dan.

Morning, Mike. I'm excited to work with you again.

So last time, we talked about the potential adverse reactions or complications of blood

transfusions.

Today, we are going to talk about the basics of transfusion medicine and component therapy.

It is important to note there are no uniform guidelines regarding the use of component

therapy.

And the when or how to transfuse can be

the subject of some controversy. As before, we have nothing to disclose, and the views expressed

here are our own and do not represent those of the Medical College of Georgia or any other

institution or entity.

So there are four main types of blood products that are parts of component therapy.

These are packed red blood cells, or PRBCs, fresh frozen plasma, or FFP,

cryoprecipitate, and platelets.

All of these are taken from blood donors, although their

preparation can vary. Whole blood transfusions are not done in the United States due to the

difficulty in making an exact match between donor and recipient, as well as the increased risk

of infection and the limited shelf life.

In a deployed setting for the military, whole blood has been used with some success in trauma

patients. However, these are incredibly sick and unstable trauma patients with a limited amount

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